I found out a very interesting
thing while looking through an old photo album. When they closed the
old construction day towns along the Canal route, buildings were
dismantled and moved to new locations. As it appears in this old
photo album, they burned them too. At first I thought the
photographer just happened to be there with camera in hand when a house
caught fire. As I turned the pages, more photos of different
buildings burning showed up in the book. This couldn't be a coincidence,
but more like planned burns. There are also photos of houses being
dismantled. With this, I came up with my hypothesis that they also
burned buildings to get rid of them. These old buildings may not have been
worth dismantling them and moving them.

Here are three more photos of other buildings burning. Click the
link.